Qiming Venture Partners Releases Investigation Findings: Due Diligence Violations, Three Investors Disciplined
The most severe penalty since its founding.
By Zhiyan Chen
On the morning of September 29, Qiming Venture Partners released the findings of its internal investigation into the "investor violation of due diligence protocols" incident that had occurred two weeks prior. According to its announcement, a project team at the firm had seriously violated Qiming's due diligence rules and procedures. Based on its internal policies, Qiming imposed punishments on the three team members according to their respective roles and responsibilities, including suspension of investment activities, demotion, and salary reduction. Waves learned that this marks the "strictest punishment" in Qiming Venture Partners' 17-year history.
On the evening of September 13, a self-media account published an article alleging that during an online roadshow between a founder and an investor, the investment firm had improperly invited a founder from an existing portfolio company to join without prior notice to the presenting founder. On the morning of September 14, Waves exclusively reported that Qiming Venture Partners had launched an internal investigation. That evening, the firm issued a statement calling it "an isolated incident" and noting that the "investigation is ongoing."
Qiming Venture Partners reconstructed the background and causes of the incident through its internal investigation. In early August 2023, the project team invited the founder of a company under due diligence to an online meeting, and separately invited the founder of an existing portfolio company to assist with technical due diligence. The three investors had not sought the due diligence target's founder's consent beforehand regarding the portfolio founder's participation.
The investigation found that "the project team had no motive or action to assist the existing portfolio company in obtaining trade secrets." The investors' motive for inviting the portfolio founder was "due diligence" — to provide expert technical assessment to inform investment decisions. Qiming Venture Partners emphasized that "this incident is a single occurrence, and no similar cases were found internally."
"The project team's actions in this incident run completely counter to Qiming Venture Partners' values. We will learn from this incident, strengthen internal training and corporate culture education, and strictly prevent similar incidents from recurring," the firm stated in closing.
Image source | Visual China
Layout | Yunxiao Guo
